November 19, 2008

Now, you guys know I don't like to complain about officiating. Mostly I figure if you get flagged for something - A. You've probably put yourself in a position to be penalized and/or B. If it's a shitty call, you have to chalk it up to human error (not that it means you can't be pissed off about it). But after hearing this talk all season about how Silverback is "held on every play," I decided to have a look for myself.

So I rewatched [painfully] the first half of Sunday's game, keeping a watchful eye on #92. What I saw was about five different occasions of what I thought was pretty clearly holding.

Now, I've gotta reiterate, I don't know what it's like to be an official. I mean, I never even played football (plus, I have a soul, so). I just have a general sense of what holding is and so I was pretty judicious when vetting these plays. I didn't call anything holding I didn't think was pretty obviously holding.

Oh, and I tried to keep track of which plays were which. But you might as well assume that there's only a 45% chance that I got them right (as usual). If you really wanna know, go see for yourself. Bottom line is they happened.

Anyways, some might say you can call holding on every play. To those people I say - Whatever, I'm just trying to write about something for this here weblog. Some might also say I should get a life - sitting here analyzing a game that happened three days ago. To those people I say - you are obviously not Steeler fans. But in case all YOU Steeler fans are interested, check the evidence below...

I think there was a 6th, but frankly, I'm not going to go back and watch this shit again. And hey, maybe this won't get us anywhere with the league, but at least my phone's got some new wallpaper. Suck a dick, officials.

Silverback - You can't stop him. You can only hope to...have him committed?

The hands to the face was bad there. But I'd have to see video to be sure those are holds because you are allowed to do what they are doing so long as your hands are inside his shoulders. I can't tell if they grab him once he gets through.

I agree with vern that it's only holding if they turn him around in some way shape or form. You would have to watch the video. It's only logical to assume, due to Harrison's utter pwning of all "blockers" he faces, he probably does get held on every play.....

doug ~ Agreed. But hey, the dude still has like 12 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, a Defensive safety and a pick. So I mean, I can't really complain too much. I just wanted to test the theory.

vern and noah ~ If you'd like to go watch the video yourselves, I say f'ing do it. I watched it and judged based on the video, not the screen shots I took. Like I said, these were situations where it seemed like a little much to me. Frankly, I think you should've gotten the point.

Well, my point was that they look like that can be legal plays with the state of holding in today's NFL. Because you are allowed to hold a guy to a certain point depending on where you are holding him at.

vern ~ I understood your point. And mine was, I did spend a good amount of time reviewing the video (not just screen shots) before I posted this. Did you have an opinion on the alleged trend of Silverback getting held? Or did you just want to question the work I did?

way off topic, but love the hannibal lecter(sp?) james harrison pic cotter. i vote keep it on the weekly rotation

/would go well w/ the wood pic

i see woodley getting held a lot too, to the point that he is being held right up to the time that the person trying to block him is running into the quarterback.

if harrison/woodley are being held then Tomlin needs to send in the game tape and evidence to bring it to the attention of the officials.

one way or another these two beasts are well on their way to breaking the single season sack record for the steelers (held or not held)...what an accomplishment! this years steelers defense is a special one, lets just enjoy.

Frappr

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